Architecture
Jahn, Helmut
Maker
"Messe"
Description
Nine-color lithograph of Messeturm (Fair Tower) in Frankfurt. Edition 7/100.
In 1984, an international competition was held for the design of the Trade Fair Tower (Messeturm) in Frankfurt, Germany. Jahn’s winning design is a tall, freestanding office tower with a large exhibit hall pavilion at its base. It was the tallest building in Europe from the time of its completion in 1990 until 1997. The distinctive and prominent building is clad in polished red-pink granite.
Describing the Messeturm project, Jahn wrote, “Its goal was to merge the figurative qualities of the American Skyscraper with the modern European Bauhaus style to show its importance as the tallest building in Europe and its responsibility replacing the Paulskirche with a commercial sign as the City’s Crown and signal Frankfurt’s importance as a new international Finance Center.”
“A collection of [. . .] iterative preparatory sketches for the Messe Tower in Frankfurt surrounds a large drawing of the final design. The printmaking medium of lithography allowed architects like Jahn, whose work was becoming increasingly collectible, to sell and distribute multiple versions of the same image.” –“Drawing After Modernism” exhibition text
Object publication history:
- Philip Jodido, “Helmut Jahn: A la conquête d’un monde nouveau,” Connaissance des arts 430 (December 1987): 132–137.
- “Helmut Jahn,” GA Document, GA International ’89 (April 1989): 20–23.
- "Murphy/Jahn, Messeturn, Frankfurt" (Munich: Oktagon, 1991).
- Tom Porter, "Architectural Drawing Masterclass: Graphic Techniques of the World's Leading Architects" (New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993).
Additional Information
Provenance: Purchased from Art Institure of Chicago by Martin E. Zimmerman.
Related people
